Category Archives: Design Inspiration

So I was watching Nick Knowles Original Features on the weekend and the show was about a couple who were doing up a ramshackle ole farmhouse which was really cute. BUT one of the things that struck me deep within my lusty decor heart was a little segment towards the end of the show where they were finishing off the bathroom and they trying to squeeze the bathtub through the bathroom door. Not just any ole bathtub but it was a copper bath!! I’ve never seen one before. It was almost a rounded egg shape. It was SO beautiful. I’m seriously in love with it (but not enough to marry it though…)

Promptly had to google it to see if such a beautiful beast can be found in my fair land, which is not usually the case, and YES! At aptly named copperbathaustralia.com.au hahaha! It’s a different (but equally beautiful) shape than the one on the show and it looks deep enough to get your whole body in for a delicious soak. Isn’t it BEAUTIFUL?!!

(image from copperbathaustralia.com.au)

(image from copperbathaustralia.com.au)

Only thing not so beautiful about it is the price tag 😦 But tis to be expected for something that solid. They also do beautiful basins so I’m seriously considering placating my desire with one of the oval ones instead. hmmm don’t think I’ve said the word beautiful enough have I? *sigh*

(image from copperbathaustralia.com.au)

I love the brand new shininess of them but also love how it patinas. It’s funny because ages ago I wanted a copper roof. I think it was on Grand Designs or something similar that a woman did a round copper roof and the verdigris patina was just lovely. I gave up on that idea because of the cost and heat aspect but a copper basin in my ensuite… I could drool over it every day and it would go with my ensuite colour scheme (which is either grey or light teal/sage). mmm yummy!

(and just FYI – I have nothing to do with copperbathaustralia other than bumping up their site page count with all my drooliness and lustiness)

(image pilfered from his site for illustration purposes only – click to enlarge)

Please go visit his site because his work is amazing! I love the dandelion fairies, such a simple but beautiful idea. I really want to get some wire and have a go myself considering he’s in the UK and it would cost a mint to buy and post one. But I reckon I could give it a go sometime after I’ve moved in and my workshop is set up. 10 days to go! Can you believe that… 10!

My brain is fritzing out trying to tell me that there’s so much to do and so little time but really I’m good to go. One teeny setback today is that I can’t put a bullbar on my truck without getting the suspension upgraded and I just frickin well had all the shocks replaced! Hmmm guess that means I have to buy a new truck hahahaha! I had actually considered that before as I need a 4×4 to get up one of the mountains in my place (apparently) so I thought about it. But I will need a bullbar (aka kangaroo bar). Heard on the radio traffic report this morning that someone had hit a kangaroo near my new place so…. crap. Not quite sure what to do about that yet so will have to mull it over for a while.

But other than that I’m just biding my time til the 30th which is the day I’m planning to move. Keys and settlement in the afternoon on the 28th, gonna take a uteload of stuff out of storage and go clean and clear on the 29th then moving in on the 30th 🙂 Oh man I can’t wait… have I mentioned that lately??? ;}

So I was thinking about that bit of land that was not “THE ONE” and maybe how I could make it “THE ONE”. (and that’s not my aforementioned super sneaky plan btw). A kind friend who understands my addiction obsession with building my house recently sent me a link to a site about earthships. First I thought she might have been taking the piss and subtly stating that perhaps I needed a tin foil hat but no, it’s a thing. I’m still not entirely sure why it’s got the word ship in it as it’s nothing ship-like at all but I guess it’s a quicker way to describe the thing than “half buried house that is usually fronted by glass” (see no shipness (shipiocity?)).

You know come to think of it I think I’ve seen one of these built out of tyres on Grand Designs (another obsession along with the current season of The Block). It’s basically a house which is sometimes built into a hillside but is made of environmentally friendly or recycled materials and is well insulated and solar passive. It recycles just about everything (water/air) and is generally fronted by a wall of glass which acts as a greenhouse for your veggie plot

Anyway it’s an interesting concept and certainly in line with my whole sustainable, don’t pay the utilities pirates merchants for services house thing that I’m trying to do. AND I could build it into the side of a hill as that would help with the insulating properties. I really like the idea of the pretty glass bottle walls like the below too (especially the Bombay Sapphire bottles!).

BUT as much as I like earthships and the concept behind them I can’t help but feel that it’s not what I want. I like to wake up to a lot of light in the house. And if I built it set into the hill then the likely spot for the bedrooms would be at the back… and then I’d almost never wake up because it would be too dark and I’d become Sleeping Beauty without the aid of a prince to wake her up with a kiss. I am, however, considering the use of the glass walls… somewhere, somehow. Not sure if I’ll be able to incorporate it into the house exactly but maybe in the entertainment area outside or something.

3. – gonna try and make this
5. – if I had stairs oh hell yes
8. – this is happening outside with an aquaponics setup but oh yessy yess
9.- I’ve seen these advertised and if I could afford one it would be in my floor plan *insert drools here*
10. – great idea for the “flooring” of my firepit, hadn’t thought of that but I LOVE sand underfoot… so consider it done
11. – LOVE love love this idea… will be sourcing projector and screen to make it happen 🙂
12. – Love this too… idea for future ;}
14. I love this BUT where did they find those square shaped bottles in those pretty colours eh?
22. I’m loving this but if I ever get cats I can imagine this being one giant kitty litter tray…. 😦
23. hells yes 😉
24. even more oh hells yes + adults… aka me… 🙂

Doing a little lunchtime drooling over the latest offerings from Temple & Webster (yes yes I may have ACCIDENTALLY bought something… my finger slipped I swear!) and was just browsing their site and they have a Find your Style section… with Modern Country! I didn’t even know that that was a thing… just thought it was me being finicky.

I found myself nodding along to the post agreeing with the style definition EXCEPT when it came to the “ongoing love affair with timber” part. I must confess, I’m really not a wood fan. It’s probably the main thing that bugs me about the country themed decor, wood on wood on wood. Bleeeeh. I’d be okay with it if it was whitewashed wood or painted wood. But au naturale… pass. Just not my thing… hope that doesn’t stop me joining the “proper bumpkin club”!

Be sure to check out the video. Freaking AMAZING! I really want to make the door in the video. It looks relatively simple but to me is just so mind blowingly beautiful in it’s simplicity. A true cleverclogs door. I’ve been thinking about where I could put it in my house. Speaking of the house, a friend suggested I draw up my house plan in MS Visio to help “see” it, stroke of fkn brilliance there! So I have… wanna see?

(clicky clicky if you want to view it in it’s full glory)

This is probably what I’d call houseplan 1.0 because there are already tweaks in my mind going on. And all the windows haven’t been added in etc etc etc… it’s a very rough first draft modification of Viva Homes’ Ants Pants design (linkage in the blogroll). I’ve already bombarded them with a whole stack of questions and they’ve been brilliant so far so I can’t wait to actually start building with them 😉

Been really busy this week so I haven’t had much time to post but I am brewing a couple more decor type posts for you, hope you can wait til next time!

So today’s thrilling episode is all about my latest plan for DIY awesomeness. I’ve been reading about building with earthbags lately. Looks like a fairly simple process – fill long tube bags with a sand mix, sandwich with a few strands of barbed wire, tamp down then render. Et voila! a solid construction for just about anything. There’s lots of websites with tutorials explaining how to do it in detail so have a google if you’re interested in learning.

I was thinking I could apply it to one of the outdoor features I really want in my new garden which is a round sunken firepit. I saw this image ages ago when I was thinking about firepits and this is what I want to base my design around. Although obviously outside, without the flue and with earthbagged rendered curves.

The original article showed them building their garden area step by step and they actually have a little firepit in the structure. That gave me the idea to apply it to what I had in mind with my sunken firepit to be able to create the lovely soft curves (although mine won’t be hot pink haha). Just add some comfy pillows and a cold beverage and it sounds like bliss to me.

And just because I want to get the word out there about making fires upside down (ie properly!) – which results in a cleaner, hotter fire – have a read of this:

Soooo I’m not entirely sure how I got onto this pic but it’s kinda defined how I want my new room to look. My whole house style is “modern French country mixed with vintage Hollywood glam slash Art Deco”. Sounds a little odd but I make it work 🙂 My current furniture is pretty much the latter half but I figured that since I’m going to be a bumpkin and I really hate the cliche country look I’d go with one I do like which is the French style. That and it works with the ideas I’ve got in my head! I think I must have done a google images search on French country bedrooms or Hollywood glam bedrooms and came across this image:

(clicky clicky to see it in glorious hugeness. I should add that I can’t find the source of this image so I can’t credit it or get more info on the goodies)

and instantly fell in love. The wallpaper is my fave shade of teal, I already have mirrored bedside tables and my couches are almost that exact grey velvet type fabric. I think it’s going to be a bit difficult to find similar wallpaper and then actually wallpaper rendered strawbale walls… I know it’s possible with a wallpaper liner but that’s all sounding like a pain in the beeehind so I was thinking a milk paint or lime paint as the walls will be lime rendered. And I love the washed look of lime paint, Porter’s Paints make one in a shade I like (Summertime 2012) but in my quick google search this morning there’s a company I’ve never heard of, Bauwerk, (http://www.bauwerk.com.au) who have a massive colour range so I might be in luck to find “my” shade of teal AND they’re in Australia – bonus! Think I’ll have to get some sample pots and do some testing once the walls are up, can’t WAIT!!!

The grey bed and teal walls all go with my current doona cover sets so I’ve got no excuse for bedding shopping… damn! Should have thought that one through better ;}

So then I set about looking for a similar bed and fkaduck they’re expensive. The closest one I could find was one on ebay for $1700 + shipping. Sooo me being the cleverclogs I am decided to have a look and see how hard it would be to make a winged tufted headboard and hey presto – a zillion tutorials via google! Most of them say a headboard could be knocked up over a weekend for around $200 depending on fabric choice so I think I’m going to give it a go and hybridise my current bed to fit the new headboard on it and make a fitted slip cover for the base. I currently have a cream suede upholstered bed base and headboard (not tufted though) so I think it would be pretty easy to modify and just take the fittings off the current headboard piece and fit them to my handmade headboard so that I can attach it to the bed base frame. It’s easy enough to make a fitted slip cover type things for the padded railings which are the base and I get the same look for probably more like $300 if I include the extra fabric costs for the base coverings. And of course impatient lil ole me wants to get started now but I don’t have the room to work on it and my bed is in storage 😦 Will just have to keep dreaming for a while. More importantly I need to decide on fabric… and then find it… I’m torn between a grey velvet type fabric like the pic above or a grey silk dupioni like the below:

I like the look of both… good thing I’ve got some time on my hands to make up my damn mind. (your opinion on which you like better is also highly appreciated… if I could work out how to set up a poll I would!)

So then I was also thinking I could make a lil end of the bed tufted bench too similar to this one:

I could even make the bench first as a practice run to the tufting of the headboard so I can get the hang of it and not mightily bugger up the headboard but again I don’t have any space to store it although I probably have space to work on it. Patience grasshopper, patience…. And of course I’ll keep you updated with pics once I get started.

For the windows, I’m thinking of getting plantation shutters on most of the house windows but for the bedroom I was thinking of getting some soft silvery floaty drapey type of fabric curtains hung from the ceiling edge like a new york loft stylie as well just to soften it all up. Think I’m going to have to haunt some fabric shops eh?

For the flooring… dunno 🙂 The flooring will be the whitish polished concrete but as for a rug or something nooo idea yet. I think that will all depend on how it all looks together and what I find in my shopping travels.